right if you. come from some stupid question. don't call. it was first reported that the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi was an unplanned uprising by a mob of people but it turns out it was a carefully orchestrated terrorist attack so why did the obama administration deliberately spread misleading information to the public and the press some truth seeking. i have to be have to i'm going to burn your image world the last role she showed in that she was. more than sure she. may be sure if you try she should. only nine hundred days after private first class bradley manning was put in jail for allegedly sharing u.s.

secrets with wiki leaks the government prepares for this high profile case to play out in court but now a group of whistleblowers is putting the entire u.s. justice system on trial we'll tell you all about it coming up. plus more proof of how serious america's cyber insecurities maybe the white house has confirmed that computer hackers attempted to reach a government system possibly one used for u.s. nuclear command question america's cyber readiness in just a few. if monday october first four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching our t.v. . we want to begin today with a look at some new information coming out about those attacks on the american consulate in benghazi libya so let's go out and lay out what happened this all started on september eleventh nearly three weeks ago four americans including a u.s. ambassador christopher stevens was killed the following weekend the u.n.

ambassador susan rice made the rounds on the sunday talk shows explaining what happened our current best assessment based on the information that we have at present is that in fact what this began as was a spontaneous not a premeditated response to what had transpired in cairo in cairo as you know a few hours earlier there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated now it turns out she might have been totally wrong that in fact what happened was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists those words from the director of national intelligence in a statement released on friday it seems they're backtracking saying also quote as the intelligence community collects and analyzes more information related to the attack our understanding of the events continues to evolve now as you can imagine a didn't take long before this would all turn political with several top republican

lawmakers now calling for ambassador susan rice to step down i think there's certain political overtones how else how else could you try it out are you an ambassador to say this was a spontaneous demonstration maybe would bought that at the time five days later that doesn't pass the smell test it was we that either will or a willful ignorance or or abysmal intelligence this research a huge failure of foreign policy message and leadership such a misstatement of the facts as we know to prime and for her to go in all of those shows and to affect the hours spokesperson for the world and be misinforming the working people and our allies and countries around the world. somebody has to pay the price for this. so lots going on here in the events surrounding this tragedy and we want to sort of get to the bottom of everything here tell me that i'm joined by tony shaffer with the center for advanced defense studies he's also the author of the book operation dark heart. hey there tony you're at it former lieutenant

colonel in the army and you know a little bit about how this process works what's your read on how this is you know trickled out. well badly to begin with and frankly she started out politically let's let me be very clear i was on another network talking about this the day after it happened and i said it was a terrorist event planned and all the information that i got that first day from my sources turned out to be completely true so the bottom line is this somehow the information i received from my sources are pretty much closed to what's going on was given to the white house as well so the question becomes why was the information was provided to be accurate the turns out same information rather the white house if they had a completely different interpretation and there's more to come let me be very clear on this and. more evidence coming out that this was not only neglect in the white house that this was indeed a very factually plan and it's not a cover up as john mccain just pointed out i disagree with him

a lot as one point i agree with very clear that ambassador rice was rolled out also a party line and that's what i was going to say i mean as this sort of started to the story sort of tired of to evolve or change. it maybe ask one of two questions should the public be more concerned that the government knew and didn't tell or that they didn't know especially considering how many intelligence officers they had on the ground tony what you said that you sort of predicted this said when your sources had told you the day onto this happened when the you know officials in libya seem to seem to be saying the same thing that you were right and yet the united states public the united states press was getting a different message what. going on here well the white house has some interest to say we don't know what happened not you know anything to say we just don't know instead we gave this completely false impression that relates to a side by story as best i can and let me be very clear on the current evidence that

the public has why the white house she is still the first the f.b.i. is still trying to get to regain crime scene which is an important aspect and necessary to result what actually now look in my operations in the book operation dark heart f.b.i. some comment which you cannot use the excuse that they can't provide their own protection secondly the media still in. this area still report so this is runs parallel not that right so the bottom line is the narrative that they're putting out now everything that's going on is fundamentally flawed and i think that's why you see this one back and forth with the bottom line portion of your question is yes you should have the old immediately this is but one more aspect of of the politicization of national security issues which clearly should not have been ever done i thought was really interesting too when you sort of break this event into its different parts just a couple days after the event happened i don't know if you heard about this or remember a c.n.n.

crew actually found a journal a personal journal written by ambassador stevens and that seemed to suggest that there was a whole lot of information coming through that he may be a target that there may be a threat there and instead of sort of getting into the specifics of that or assuring the american people in some way instead of doing that what does the u.s. state department do they get angry at c.n.n. for sharing right in a sense for doing when journalists are supposed to do it right you know picking up a piece of evidence left on a scene that clearly wasn't taken away so my question to you tony is is why wasn't this you know entire building this entire scene of the crime you know cleared of all the evidence. well two reasons first i think the truth has to be far more severe than we even know i'm hearing that one of the missions that the ambassador had assigned to him was that were solved so if you outreach to a program the covert probably going to strike you i think that's what happened and as we go into this more and more they're going to be very embarrassing facts come

out i actually compare this chap you'll recall back in two thousand and five was able to blow up cia's particle best. analysts regarding bad law in afghanistan i think you see something similar here secondly of course you don't want to secure crime so you worry about what's going to come out regarding your own failures i think again i have a great deal of confidence that within the next two three days you're going to see more information come out showing that the state department was criminally negligent and helping ambassador stevens protect himself and i think it's going to come to be known that they were essentially a coconspirator almost is the fact they did not act on his concern frankly the concerns of others which would be coming out here very short as there's only just to be clear i mean you're saying from what your sources have told you a that you know all of those in charge knew exactly that this was going to happen that's what i'm saying and the other the other part here that you mentioned that i hadn't heard anything about is that perhaps ambassador stevens next assignment

would have been to go try to communicate with talk with members of al qaida oh no he was already doing it that's my point no no i got from one of my inside. sources that part of his job there was actually to do this outreach to what sort of boat do outreach and relationship building so my friends also some of they were betting the guys we were dealing with so obviously i think this is you're going to find that the so-called local security was badly infiltrated by elements of those who are allied with al qaida and again this is more criminal negligence as far as i can tell. that's really interesting because you know i'm not an expert in this and that in these matters it whatsoever but it seems to me that when you're dealing with those kind of assignments that would be more jobs for the cia and not a united states ambassador to me there are a bastard job is to actually perform the missions assigned him or her regarding our policy this goes back to the core of why the trying to hide all the policy there

was to do outreach to try to bring some outlier back into what they considered but mr mugg libya politics i think again is why you saw the failure that we did because this is a policy issue not simply scared tony i want to talk a little bit politically about this that mitt romney wrote an op ed that appeared in yesterday's wall street journal he called for a new course in the middle east and he comes down on the press on president obama's foreign policy saying quote i'm in this upheaval our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them we're not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies tony a last question is should this attack in the way it was handled be viewed as a failure by the obama administration fundamentally the belief has been within the administration folks are talking is that this new route where you were doing this what they left what the right calls appeasement what the left of outreach is not working by the fact that you know it's like trying to give people a big hug hawk people don't want and i think what you see here is

a real problem by the fact that you cannot a peace or groups you can try to bring a horse to water but now they can you cannot give people a democracy if they have no tradition or if i think that's what he's talking about here i think that's why i call it all the white house policy a policy of wishful thinking they wish one thing but reality radicals are very interesting stuff as always tony shaffer with the center for advanced defense studies and joining us from fairfax virginia thank you. well last week the u.s. house of representatives passed a bill aimed at beefing up protections for whistleblowers we're talking about federal workers who point out waste fraud and abuse in the government now look pretty similar to the version passed by the senate but it did not include language offering these whistleblower protections for intelligence officials it was indeed a step forward but how protected really are whistleblowers in america one of the weekend i attended an event held in honor of one of the most famous whistleblowers of this generation bradley manning. his name.

has evolved into a movement a movement with a mission to truth as the points. maybe on their own ideals. but there are things worth fighting for those who attended the event hope to eventually see accused wiki leaks or bradley manning freed from prison he's already spent eight hundred sixty two days there much of it in solitary confinement and still has not gone to trial we are here because the truth is on trial bradley is not a traitor. he's not a spy but a truth teller and i was a former national security agency executive thomas drake is a whistleblower as well like manning charged by the government under the espionage act he revealed information to a reporter with the baltimore sun that the n.s.c. was spying on u.s. citizens he was later found innocent freedom is extraordinarily precious he was

a featured speaker along with the government accountability project director jesselyn radack manning friend and co-founder of the bradley manning support network david house duty author and soccer fox and journalist chris hedges and others. no matter what anyone feels about probably nothing everyone in america would reach course whistleblowing it supports transparency and probably many news an example of a young now the young soldier who is alleged to have blown the whistle so americans everywhere sure they have a good opinion of the young man and the point of the events to raise awareness of sports but also to raise money donations book sales someone even donated a bottle of wine california white called for everything raised here will go to the bradley manning defense fund that has since nine eleven i've been concerned that our civil liberties are in jeopardy and it's pretty obvious that. this is why i came from massachusetts to be here in support of several georgetown law students

and professors attended the event many knew very little about me and beforehand i learned a lot more than more knowledge and i came here with it's very important for me to be here to see and have a lot of fame you know say with a list of no worse. to how about at this question here i discussion about a young man his future and the future of a country's laws and legacy. in washington christine frees out our team. i want to talk more about last night's event and also some of the larger implications here not just who radley manning is or what he did but what he represents i'm joined by just one right ak national security and human rights for the government accountability project just eleven we saw you there in the piece i saw you at the event yesterday how did it go i thought it went really well i don't know how much money was raised by the event it was a fundraiser but i do know that there's a generous who is willing to match dollar for dollar any contributions me made and

i think they were incredibly powerful speeches by thomas drake and by chris hedges and by david house and i just liberate iraq as well thank you. i did the best i could it's very hard because he is an incredibly significant whistleblower and arguably one of the most important ones of the past century even daniel ellsberg the patriarch of whistleblowers says that about bradley manning ellsberg of course leaked the pentagon papers to maritimes and other publications let's talk about bradley manning and what's next of course this these funds are needed bradley manning has an attorney david coombs these funds are needed to continue to support him and he has been as we said you know behind bars for eight hundred fifty two hundred sixty two days i think he still has not gone to trial what's going on here well his attorneys have actually recently filed a motion about his right to

a speedy trial that he's entitled to under the sixty amendment of the u.s. constitution and also under article ten of the uniform code of military justice. that is one motion we have been upcoming hearing and article thirteen record in the allegations about torture so there are a number of things coming up for him but again david coombs is an excellent attorney but you know the fees are. are running very high in these cases in my with my espionage act clients who are told that their defense can cost between one million and three million dollars so even if you're found innocent you don't get that money back and you been put through financial hell as well as personal health for telling the truth i want to sort of broaden this just talk for a moment a lot of times we talk about bradley manning we also talk about julian assange as the co-founder of wiki leaks he has of course been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy for the last several months he's been granted asylum in ecuador but is

wanted for questioning on sexual allegations in sweden so all this time julian assange has been saying feel free to come and question me here i don't want to go to sweden for a number of reasons number one because i'm worried that you know they will then send me to the united states where attorney general holder has already said there's a criminal investigation going on but also and this was surprising to a lot of people he spoke out julian assange spoke out against conditions somewhat oppressive conditions for detention prisoners in sweden so i want to talk about this new example that's out we know that got freed swart home the co-founder of pirate bay is in sweden he's been refused any access to newspapers or television he's totally forbidden from having guests and he's not officially been charged so let's talk a little bit about this and how this could potentially relate to a son which you know i think this case while it is completely unrelated to wiki

leaks underlines all the reasons why why a silence was granted asylum. basically he has a valid fear of political persecution and it also highlights all the problems with this swedish system in terms of unusual secrecy in their pretrial judicial process the ability to hold accused people incommunicado the ability to hold people without. for a very long period of time and there's no guarantee of a public trial and it also highlights the whole extradition issue with sweden because. i was in it think it was in cambodia and he was extradited to sweden and that is precisely the concern that julian assange has that britain will promptly extradite him to sweden which will probably

extradite him to the u.s. and both countries have specifically refused to give any guarantee that they will not do that right that would make it a whole lot easier if they were able to make i guarantee let's talk also a few minutes ago i was talking about the legislation congress came back for a special session. passed through pretty quickly the whistleblower protection act or a version of it and there were several aspects in there i do want to highlight a few of them basically the legislation clarifies that whistleblowers are protected for challenging the consequences of government policy decisions it establishes the explicit whistleblower protections for t.s.a. employees it makes it easier to discipline those responsible for illegal retaliation against the whistleblowers but just limit one thing missing from this house version of the bill that was included in the senate version of the bill is workers from the intelligence community talk a little bit about this yes well that's the gaping hole and always has been but the gaping hole is that there is no protection for national security and intelligence

whistleblowers who are arguably the ones you would most want to hear from and significantly are the ones who are currently being prosecuted under the espionage act people like bradley manning in the military we have to cia workers john kiriakou and jeff sterling tom drake who is an n.s.a. employee who script you ran. a steven kim. so the people who most need protection are again come. we left out and while i applaud the house for doing this what really needs to happen is number one that this will go to the senate for final action where it has always been killed last time it died of the secret hold in the senate placed on it so getting it through the house is progress but we need the senate to approve it and also it would be good if the senate would even think about doing something anything that would give

a modicum of protection to people in the national security and intelligence irina's the nor country yeah certainly one step forward two steps back sometimes and sometimes it seems i just read aca director of national security and human rights for the government accountability project thanks as always thank you. well if there was any doubt that an executive order on cyber security was right around the corner now might be the time to cast it aside according to a series named named an unnamed officials now more than ever extra protection is needed to guard against hackers who want to find out our secrets and gain access to our most sensitive information especially when the perpetrators are from china that's according to an article in the conservative washington free beacon says hackers linked to china's government broke into one of the u.s. government's most sensitive computer networks breaching a system used by the white house military office for nuclear commands there article goes on to quote a white house official who said that this was a spear phishing attack against an unclassified network so i want to talk about

what all this means kind of break it down for you how severe it is and what it could mean on a larger scale and for that i'm joined by our team web producer angie blake andrew let's start with a spear fishing what does this mean that we're going to do what we can do anything but it's kind of a whole lot of nothing if you ask me the story came out yesterday said that the beagle the washington free beacon the washington free beacon which a lot of us in the office went home what is that those notes i believe yes yes so there's a restart digger who used to work for the washington times that might actually still be employed there but so we start going through trying to find out what's this big scare that we see today because within hours it starts you know it hits huff po the a.p. puts it on the wire and then we start seeing new sources come in saying new things in the white house do confirm and say yes we were hit by a cyber attack or at least attempted to be hit by a cyber attack which sounds really scary that word itself attacked it's a little aggressive a little aggro but spearfishing let's let's talk about that yes not really that scary it like i said it it can do

a lot but there was no crazy chinese scientists trying to infiltrate our internet to and working in vast machines typing codes trying to scare us what spearfishing is as someone goes i want to get the white house i'm going to find some of the white house. e-mails to anyone they can from the white house and they'll try to make these e-mails look love or they'll say oh hey i'm going to need your help to have your password i mean obviously can be a bit more complex than that but you want you want to try to trick someone to think that you're somebody else it's pretty much just social engineering there is no it's more hacking of the brain than actually is hacking computer use want to convince someone to let up their guard and then maybe she convinced them to open some sort of corrupted p.d.f. file or some sort of other program then they can you know we should have you want into the system yeah and i would think that anyone who works for the white house whether it's you know someone in the intelligence community or even somebody on the custodial staff and anyone with a white house e-mail i cannot imagine that they would be clicking on these links a lot of times you know when these e-mails are sent to me i often see in my junk

mail bob yeah exactly it is pretty much the same thing as like the old nigerian oil prince scam or something like that in fact someone fox picked up the story this afternoon in you know fearmonger the hell out of it instantly but actually put a quote in there with someone saying why did this come down to. someone open an email and that was it there was no it was very easy easy hacking through one system yeah chinese spies didn't break through like the west wing windows and start smashing stuff and putting a little u.s.b. drives inside the president's phone no you know they could of the fact that it was you know sort of the department that's in charge of white house scheduling that knows where the president's going to be at all times this was cause for a whole lot of people to say we need cyber security legislation now and that's so funny because they've been saying that for so long and it seems like they've been continuously looking for a new excuse to convince us that that's a good idea or you're connecting some dots for years and years saying that the only

reason this story came out is perhaps because it was another reason to put in sort of the arsenal of reasons i don't want to say that per se ok seems like would be a bit facetious of me just to assume things like this however congress couldn't come up with cybersecurity bill decided the house could agree on anything. the white house said it will take care of it then the white house confirmed that they drafted an executive order and the white house said that they will release an executive order and all they've needed to do is pretty much scare america thinking that a cyber security threat which is a threat is real but this may be kind of will be a little blown up today i think we're a little the world is scared we're on monday i know i'm not scared on the scared of anything but it's monday we're all on edge but entirely reasonable as in this article and say whoa this is the most sensitive office in the u.s. government a former senior u.s. intelligence official said a compromise there would cause graves to strategic damage to the united states yet someone just opened up an e-mail i don't believe that for a second i'm sure there's some people at the pentagon that are pretty pissed that

apparently they have high clearance is this if there's something else we have to talk about i would say it's something that a lot of times it is ignored. cyber security once the executive order especially is handed down to this is going to create an entirely new infrastructure in this country and around the world is going to create a whole lot of business which can be good for jobs jobs jobs but there's going to be a lot of people who want these contracts oh so this is turning into something that seems to be a financial. blessing for a lot of people as well i believe is actually senator wyden and senator udall excuse me i don't remember which one but when the were raising objections to bill earlier this year before that was defeated the actually one of them forgot who actually said you know this is going to create a cyber intelligence complex this is going to be like the the military will war machine that we're pumping all this money and then just making all of northern virginia filthy rich it's going to be the same thing and people are just going to be calm. and like i said filthy rich off of just sharing other people's info with

the only indonesian government and even now i've been reading the washington post is actually covering this a little bit cybersecurity you know employees people who have this background this knowledge that have been coming in and getting jobs they've been able to sort of drive up the valley. of what they're worth because there's more of a demand than there is a supply for that so these people are making exorbitant amount amounts of money i see able to come into these jobs who imagine when there's this entirely new complex as you call her diligence he's actually going to colleges right now in trying to recruit hackers that they'll be doing their dirty work for the next generation so very interesting what you will have been yeah well thanks for breaking that down a lot of technical terms that sometimes not all of us are familiar with are probably screwed something up sorry i'm sure you didn't our c.n.n. producer answered like thanks so much thank you and for us here that's going to do it but for more on the stories we covered make sure to go to youtube dot com slash r t america blake just heard from writes a whole bunch of articles for us on our website r t dot com slash usa and you

should of course follow me on twitter you can find me at christine we're going to back here in about thirty minutes. culture is the same are you going to a huge musician are you trying to talk to friends in the arab spring or the arab winter where does this great liberation project stand in the arab middle east and where is it going are the forces of reaction. submission and free

accreditation street clothes for judges free from a german street the street studio tied free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media and on to our teeth on tom you. get on sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hardy welcome to the big picture.